Alternative Technology: Key to Resist Climate Change & Promote Development in India?

The rapid rate of climate change has become a major global concern over the past several decades. Human activities are attributed as the major cause for this rapid pace. This change is impacting the ecosystem in a bad way. Due to this, a number of plant and animal species have gone extinct and many more are on the verge of becoming extinct. 

Climate change is also affecting humans in a huge way. Disease-causing microbes such as bacteria dwell in warmer climates. People living near the coasts are facing the brunt of climate change in the form of flooding and depletion of coastlines, many small islands such as the Maldives are sinking, irregular monsoons is leading to either extreme drought-like conditions or huge floods which is affecting agriculture and livelihood of many people. These are just some of the many examples. 

The IPCC has warned of dire consequences due to the threat of climate change in "The Special Report of Global Warming of 1.5 °C" if the world does not limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. So, there is an urgent need to stop this climate change.

Simultaneously, India is in the process of emerging into a strong economy. It is in a very crucial phase of development. With nearly 64% of working age population, India has a huge demographic potential that is yet to be tapped. The GDP growth rate should be at least 9% per annum in order to tap this. Indian economy is mainly a demand-driven economy. We need to focus on improving the supply-side response. For any economy to grow at a fast pace, the manufacturing sector plays a huge role. An efficient manufacturing sector not only helps resolve the supply-side deficiencies but is also labour intensive. The share of manufacturing in India's GDP remains low. Hence, the need of the hour is to boost Make-In-India type programmes to a larger scale. 

But the major side effects of development we see in India are pollution and climate change. Boosting Make-In-India means increasing the use of machinery. Using machines result in burning fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels result in the production of various green house gases. This in turn results in global warming and hence, the adverse effects of climate change. For India to grow and remove people out of poverty and unemployment, India cannot afford the threat of climate change to act as a deterrent to its economic development.

But this does not mean we should neglect climate change. If we do so, it will be counter productive. Therefore, India should become climate change resilient in order to reap the full benefits of development.The link between climate change and economy is technology. Technology can impact climate change in two ways:

• Either it can be the cause of climate change
• Or it can be used as a solution to stop climate change. 

There are two ways to use technology as a solution for the climate change problem:

• Technology can be used to mitigate it
• Or it can be used to help us adapt to climate change.

For India to become resilient to climate change, it has to tap the potential of alternative technology. It is defined as technology that is environment  friendly and more efficient than the conventional ones. It uses renewable energy sources such as solar energy, geothermal power, bio-fuels, hydroelectric power, tidal energy, wind energy, etc. which are less polluting and infinitely available in nature. Let us see few of the alternative technologies below.

Solar technology in India has become a fast developing industry. India is a tropical country with immense sunlight throughout the year. The amount of solar energy available in a year exceeds the energy output tapped from all the fossil fuel reserves of India. The government targets to set up 100 GW of installed capacity of solar power by 2022. The government had also announced to reduce fossil  fuels emission intensity by 33-35% below 2005 emission levels by 2030 in 2015. As of December 2018, India has achieved 20% reduction of emission intensity from its 2005 levels and is on track to reach 33% by 2030. With the prices of silicon cells coming down, solar technology is easily accessible and highly affordable for both industrial as well as domestic use in this hot land.

To further promote solar technology, India initiated the International Solar Alliance (ISA). This is a treaty based alliance of 121 nations which lie partly or completely between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, or the Tropical Zone. These are countries that receive a huge amount of sunlight throughout the year. In the UNFCCC Paris Summit, India pledged to bring 40% of its electricity generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources. The launch of such alliance has brought together global communities to cooperate with each other to act against climate change by switching to low carbon growth path and has showcased the sincerity of the developing nations, such as India and others which have joined, towards their concern about climate change.

Biomass is another alternative source of energy in India which is derived from the organic matter of plants and animals. It is a major energy source in rural households. It does not fluctuate like solar or wind energy. India produces about 500-550 million tonnes of biomass per year. It has the potential to replace fossil fuels in electricity generation and in vehicles. These are called bio-fuels. Fossil fuels can also be mixed with some amount of biomass to improve efficiency of that fossil fuel and reduce the emission of green house gases. As per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, about 32% of the total primary energy is derived from biomass and more than 70% of the population depends upon it for its energy needs especially from rural areas. Plants like Neem, Mahua, Jatropha, Sugarcane etc. are a potential source for bio-diesel in India. The government is providing incentives to promote rehabilitation of waste lands through the cultivation of Jatropha. 

The government has formulated the National Policy on Biofuels which encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oil-seeds, used cooking oil, short gestation crops and increase ethanol production from sugarcane and damaged food crops. By reducing crop burning and conversion of agricultural wastes to biofuels there will be further reduction in green house gas emissions.

India's total installed wind power capacity is approximately 36.6-36.7 GW making it the fourth largest in the world after Germany. The operational cost of wind energy is inexpensive due to which it is easily affordable. Coastal regions of India like Gujarat and Kanyakumari are reaping its benefits. Wind energy is converted into mechanical energy when the wind turbines rotate due to the movement in air. There is no need of any extra fuel for this, making it a clean source of energy. The potential of wind energy shall further be tapped in order to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels causing climate change. 

Hydro-power generation, another clean technology, uses water to generate electricity. The flowing water from rivers streams creates kinetic energy that can be converted to electricity. Being blessed with a good amount of water resources in India helps us to reduce our dependence on conventional technology. Also, India has a long coastline. Hence it has a huge potential to exploit the ocean energy. Oceans can produce wave as well as tidal energy.  It can be used as an alternative technology.

Currently, hydro-power is contributing 13% of the total power capacity and the remaining renewable energy sources account for 22% of the total installed power capacity.

Apart from focusing on technologies to exploit various renewable resources, India is also focusing on alternative machinery. One such example is the promotion of electric vehicles. This will not only help reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but will also help in reducing green house gas emissions thereby reducing pollution and climate change. Apart from encouraging innovation, promotion of alternative technology will also help in promoting research and development into new methods of climate change resilience.

We have to ensure that environment and development do not become two opposing subjects of a debate. As mentioned above, the way forward is to increase the use of alternative technology for a climate change resilient India. We have to see to it that India's economic development does not affect climate change in anyway. The two agendas should act complementary to each other.